Goodale says he’d consider ban on assault rifles

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he’s ready to consider demands from victims of a Quebec gun massacre for a ban on assault weapons in Canada.

Goodale’s statement Tuesday was in response to requests from families and victims of the mass shooting last year that killed six worshippers in a Quebec City mosque.

“We would have to examine from a technical, legal point of view here, what specifically is being proposed,” Goodale said after defending the government’s latest gun-control legislation, Bill C-71, at a meeting of the Commons Public Safety Committee.

“I don’t reject anything out of hand,” Goodale told reporters who asked him about the request from the Quebec City families. The victims and families wrote Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly this week expressing disappointment that assault weapons were not included in the bill.

“It is Parliament’s prerogative to change the categories, if Parliament feels that that is appropriate,” Goodale said.

He said it is too late to add such a major change to laws governing prohibited or restricted firearms to the new legislation, which deals only with control and safety measures over non-restricted rifles and shotguns.

“I don’t feel it would be practically positive to move in that direction in the context of C-71,” Goodale said.

“If there is a serious, credible proposal we will examine it in the interest of public safety,” Goodale said. “I don’t reject anything out of hand,” he said.

More than 75 people signed the letter to Trudeau that noted the legislation does not assault rifles like the one like the converted Czech military rifle reportedly used by the Quebec shooter.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, pleaded guilty in March to six charges of first-degree murder and six charges of attempted murder.

The prime minister also commented on the request from the Quebec City victims by saying police, not politicians, should be the ones to determine the restrictions placed on specific kinds of guns.

Trudeau touts provisions of his government’s firearms bill that would restore the authority of RCMP experts to classify firearms without political influence, repealing cabinet’s authority to overrule Mountie determinations.

In a letter to Trudeau, more than 75 people express disappointment the bill does not ban semi-automatic rifles like the one carried by Bissonnette.

Goodale was grilled in the committee by Conservatives MPs who say the legislation is already too restrictive and an assault on on gun owners.

Two Alberta Conservatives, Medicine Hat MP Glen Motz and Red Deer MP Blaine Calkins, challenged the minister over elements of the bill the Conservatives say will create a new version of the federal long gun registry and argued the legislation does not address gun crime and gang violence.

“Let me be abundantly clear,” said Goodale. “Our objective here is practical improvements in public safety without imposing any kind of intrusive or unreasonable burden on law-abiding Canadian citizens or law-abiding Canadian businesses.”

“This is, I know, an intense and emotional topic and people have strong feelings on various sides of the argument, but if you take a practical run through of the legislation, there is nothing here that is an unreasonable burden on people who are going to follow the law, and a vast majority of Canadians do.”

Motz argued that, while the government says the bill is gang and gun focused, it is not.

“There is no reference to gangs or criminal organizations in this bill whatsoever,” said Motz, who claimed gun theft in Canada is not the main problem.

“We know that for the organized crime groups, especially in Toronto, it’s the straw purchases, you have a somewhat legitimate (licence) owner who comes in and acquires firearms, a large number of firearms, and then sells them to organized crime. We know this happens all the time.

“I am really struggling, sir, to find out where and how you believe this will actually impact positively the gang violence and gun violence that’s going on in this country.

“This legislation does nothing but target, it’s a regulatory bill that does not nothing but target law-abiding gun owners, zero,” said Motz.

Goodale said other separate measures will beef up border surveillance and seizure of smuggled guns from the U.S., increase federal support for guns and gangs task force operations and support programs to address gang recruitment.

“You’re entitled to your perspective and your opinion, but I respectfully disagree,” said Goodale, pointing to provisions that would expand background checks for licence applicants to cover the person’s entire life, not just the previous five-year period under current law.

New requirements for point-of-sale licence validation by the Canadian Firearms Centre, new transportation permit requirements and a requirement for retailers to maintain sales records in case of a criminal investigation also add to public safety and police ability to trace crime-scene guns, Goodale said.

The head of one of Canada’s national gun-owner lobbies, the National Firearms Association, was in the committee room as Goodale defended the bill.

The B.C.-based group has sided with the Conservatives in their claim the mandatory record-keeping of rifle and shotgun sales is in reality a new form of gun registry the Liberals promised not to reinstate.

“One thing the National Firearms Association is going to do is work very, very hard to make sure that any Member of Parliament who supports Bill C-71 is defeated in the next election,” NFA president Sheldon Clare said in interview as he watched the proceedings.

“This bill represents an all-out attack on the Canadian firearms owners, this has nothing whatsoever to do with public safety, there’s nothing in the bill of value,” said Clare, who flew to Ottawa from B.C. to attend.